The Hunley gets a lot of ink, largely I guess because submarine technology was new and exciting at the time, but basically its story is depressing with some brave men drowning or suffocating on the bottom without having achieved much. More uplifting is the overall history of the leapfrogging of naval technology as the Confederate States sought to overcome overwhelming U.S. navy superiority by innovative weapons. This goes for the famous clash at Hampton Roads, to the vicious river clashes, to the Bismarck of its day, the CSS Stonewall. The Stonewall never had time to influence the Civil War but it went on to change the history of the Empire of Japan but few people have even heard of it today.